Tense

A moment in time

A moment of your time

A monument to time

Deep monumental time

A modicum of momentum through time

Occupied in time

A preoccupation with time (≈)

i-

i have/am/will

moved/moving/move through time

Forever and never (≠)

i say “i”

Yet what that will be/is/was hard to determine

Since what construed/construes/will construe “i” (∂)

I found myself shuttled/shuttling/will be shuttled from the chemical growbag of my mother’s womb

A precipitant precipitate, abreactive reagency, postpartum postulate (Ø)

Capillaries, thew and membrane all constructed/constructs/ will be constructed from words in the dictionary

Aught but a cluster of sensory excitations

Relayed/relaying/will be relayed to a central processing cortex

Which clutched/clutches/will clutch at them interpretatively,

Glossed and glommed/glossing and glomming/ will gloss and glom impressions

And imagined/imagine/will imagine them as singularly connected/connecting/will connect («)

Ergo clumped/clumping/will clump them together as a self-reflexive unity

Of self

Ergo ego

That imagined/imagines/will imagine it can act through time

And changed/change/will change events

As if time proceeded/proceeds/will proceed along regular intervals

As if the “i” existed/exists/will exist sequentially along an unbroken continuum

Until death and cessation (Ω)

The nagging uncertainty that ate/eats/will eat at the core of this i of me

Saw/sees/will see the me reached/reaching/will reach for a pen

And wrote/writes/will write a parallel sequence with will abridge/abridging/abridged continuum

Yet that i is avowedly fictional unlike the indeterminate state of the prior/current/subsequent me

Which itself was/is/will be, of course, a fiction

Set/setting/will set up a parallax ‘me’ reflective and reflexive of the i that already was/is/will be pushed out there as having represented/representing/ will represent me

Stood/standing/will stand for me stood/standing/will stand the test of time

Friction upon fiction

A fictional i viewed/viewing/will view a second fictional i at one stage removed/remove/will remove

No three-hundred and sixty degree vision was/is/will be possible

Because of single point perspective

Subjective perception subjected/subjecting/will subject itself to reflexive scrutiny

Even though neither being existed/exists/will exist (∓)

The second Being being the mark the first being had left/leaves/will leave on the earth

Even though all human marks were/are/will be buried beneath soil or were/are/will be digitised somewhere in the ether

A data set generated by another data set

Both became/become/will become an evanescent smudge, proof positive that time did/does/will progress in a forward direction

As the waves of the sea will wash/washing/washed over the beach and obliterates/ will obliterate/obliterated any impressions cast there

Entropy

A moment in time

A moment of your time

A monument to time

Deep monumental time

A modicum of momentum through time

Occupied in time

A preoccupation with time (∞)

*

Biography

Marc Nash has published 5 collections of flash fiction and his fifth novel will be published by Dead Ink Books in Autumn 2017. He collaborates with video makers to turn some of his flash into digital story telling. He lives & works in London.